2016 Consumer Identity Predictions: Part 3

2016 promises to be a year of enhanced development in the customer identity and access management (CIAM) space, with customer experience, data privacy and personalization proving to be increasingly critical components of business success.

We’ve outlined five identity-related trends we foresee taking hold in the new year. I’ve covered our first three predictions in Part 1 and Part 2 of this series. This week, we’re examining our final two predictions.

Prediction #4: Security and customer experience will converge.

For marketers to create relevant user experiences, they must be able to identify and connect with customers as they move across today’s landscape of channels and connected devices. However, user tolerance for security barriers like passwords and CAPTCHA is diminishing, causing them to abandon these barriers in search of newer and more convenient experiences.

To continue to earn access to customer identities and data, companies must deliver the frictionless registration and engagement processes that users expect. This is a new concept for IT leaders accustomed to focusing on captive employees, who have no choice but to deal with latency and strict authentication protocols when it comes to internal business systems.

We believe that, with continued development for biometric forms of authentication and API-focused security, for example, 2016 will find more leading brands striking a balance between usability and security, adopting the tools needed to maximize frictionless user experiences while minimizing risk.

Prediction #5: The importance of the IDoT will eclipse fascination with the IoT.

Cisco projects that the Internet of Things (IoT) is a $14 trillion revenue opportunity, making smart, connected products—and the technologies that make them tick—drivers of huge new growth opportunities. However, according to Gartner, “Managing identities and access is critical to the success of the Internet of Things,” making the Identity of Things, or IDoT, the new focus of the IoT.

The IDoT is based on the principle that all entities in the IoT ecosystem – including people, apps, services and connected things – have identities comprised of identifiers and their attributes, and that those identities define relationships between every entity. Managing the data that flows between these identities requires an identity management solution that unifies every entity in the system—a core requirement for businesses looking to capitalize on the IoT in 2016.